Motor Skills in Brazilian Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder versus Children with Motor Typical Development

Abstract

The aims of the study were to compare the performance of children with probable developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and motor typically developing peers on items from the Assessment of Motor Coordination and Dexterity (AMCD), to determine whether age, gender and type of school had significant impact on the scores of the AMCD items, to estimate the frequency of DCD among Brazilian children ages 7 and 8 years and to investigate whether children with DCD exhibit more symptoms of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder than children with motor typical development. A total of 793 children were screened by the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire - Brazilian version (DCDQ-Brazil); 90 were identified as at risk for DCD; 91 matched controls were selected from the remaining participants. Children in both groups were evaluated with the AMCD, the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC-II) and Raven's coloured progressive matrices. Thirty-four children were classified as probable DCD, as defined by a combination of the DCDQ-Brazil and MABC-II scores (fifth percentile). The final frequency of DCD among children ages 7 and 8 years was 4.3%. There were significant differences between children with and without DCD on the majority of AMCD items, indicating its potential for identifying DCD in Brazilian children. The use of a motor test (MABC-II) that is not validated for the Brazilian children is a limitation of the present study. Further studies should investigate whether the AMCD is useful for identifying DCD in other age groups and in children from different regions of Brazil. The application of the AMCD may potentially contribute in improving occupational therapy practice in Brazil and in identifying children that could benefit from occupational therapy services.

Motor Competence Levels and Prevalence of Developmental Coordination Disorder in Spanish Children: The MOVI‐KIDS Study

“…Children from public schools obtained better scores in the tests involving aim and catch, which is not consistent with other studies . In our opinion, these differences may be due to the differences between public and private schools depending on the countries in which the studies are conducted.…”

“…Children from public schools obtained better scores in the tests involving aim and catch, which is not consistent with other studies. 9,11 In our opinion, these differences may be due to the differences between public and private schools depending on the countries in which the studies are conducted. Whereas private schools in Brazil 11 and Greece 12 have more personal and infrastructure resources for motor development than public schools, it seems that there is no such difference between the 2 types of schools in Spain.…”

“…The development of MC is influenced by genetics potential, and environmental factors, such as the socioeconomic status (SES) of the family, the characteristics of the school, or the socialization process . Regardless of sex influence, it has been suggested that schoolchildren are stereotyped in certain roles according to their sex from childhood…”

“…7 The development of MC is influenced by genetics potential, 8 and environmental factors, 9 such as the socioeconomic status (SES) of the family, 10 the characteristics of the school, or the socialization process. [11][12][13] Regardless of sex influence, it has been suggested that schoolchildren are stereotyped in certain roles according to their sex from childhood. 14 On the other hand, developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a worldwide common health problem among school-aged children, 15,16 characterized by a substantial delay on acquisition and execution of coordinated motor skills manifested as clumsiness and slowness and inaccuracy of performance of motor skills.…”

Problemas de coordenação motora e de atenção em crianças em idade escolar

“…Em estudo realizado no Brasil, Cardoso et al 16 observaram que, considerando a frequência de TDAH, com base em respostas de professores ao SNAP-IV, dentro do grupo TDC, 41,2% mostraram sinais de TDAH: seis crianças com TDC (17,6%) exibiam sinais de déficit de atenção, uma (2,9%) apresentou sinais de hiperatividade/impulsividade, sete (20,7%) apresentaram sinais de TDAH combinado, 18 (52,9%) não apresentaram sinais de TDAH e dois (5,9%) não retornaram os questionários. Essa associação entre dificuldades motoras e TDAH aponta a necessidade de se fazer o diagnóstico o mais precocemente possível e oferecer tratamento adequado às crianças, uma vez que as comorbidades aumentam as chances de fracasso escolar e problemas emocionais secundários 7,9 .…”